Mission Partners

It is now our 40th year in student ministry, having worked in different capacities within IFES. Our current focus is on the FEUER (Fellowship of Evangelists in the Universities of EuRope) network which seeks to encourage the development of a network of 50-60 university evangelists across Europe, and to have at least one based in each European country who focus on communicating the gospel publicly in CU's across the continent. During 2016 this team was involved in speaking at university mission weeks, lasting 4-5 days, in about 180 universities in 35 countries. We hope to extend the work over the next few years to every country in Europe.

How have we seen God at work over the last few years?

Over the past 40 years it has been our privilege in IFES to see graduates from student ministry serving in many areas of society and in church leadership across the globe. In our current role our greatest joy is in seeing students, international and British, turning to Christ through these mission weeks. Our prayer is that ripples will go out from these mission weeks across the globe and impact Christian witness in years to come. We appreciate your prayers.

I work in HMP Cardiff and HMP Prescoed as a Prison Chaplain and I run Time For Change Ministries. As a Chaplain, I run regular Christianity Explored courses and Bible studies with groups of prisoners, as well as other Bible based courses and some generic Chaplaincy duties. TFCM provides Biblical resources for use with prisoners, including the Guilt and Forgiveness course and Bible study series. I also visit Philippine Outreach Centre Ministries annually to join their Prison Ministry team.

What led me to mission?

God did! For 7 years, I was aware that God was leading me towards full time Christian work but I didn't know what shape that would take. Every Mission Sunday I would listen to the sermons and tingle inside, knowing that God was speaking to me, but not knowing what he was calling me to. I did know that it would be some kind of ministry to the lost and broken and gradually realised that it would be evangelistic - as a doctor, I became aware that I was now being called to the healing of souls, not bodies. I did short term mission with Soapbox almost every summer, and each trip took me a step closer to understanding what it meant to be in full time ministry, particularly as I started to get to know the Soapbox mission partners we were working with. In 2006, Soapbox needed a female leader for a trip to the Philippines and I agreed to go, just to do them a favour. We went to Philippine Outreach Centre Ministries to do children's work and paint their older boy's home. We took the team on one of POCM's regular jail ministry trips, and, in Iba jail, as I sat with the prisoners and listened to the gospel being shared by a team mate, I heard God tell me to go home and do this in my country, in my language. And that, as they say, was that!

The work of the Prem Fellowship has resulted from the years of missionary service in Pakistan of Roger and Diana who first went to Pakistan in 1968. After 20 years with the International Christian Fellowship there was a mission merger. Roger and Diana moved on to pioneer a field of ministry among Hindu oriented Marwari people in the Bahawalpur region of the southern Punjab.

Today this work has developed and extended to several provinces in Pakistan and among various people groups including Marwari, Sansi, Bagri as well as among the majority religious community within this country. In 2015 the work was recognised as a charity in the U.K (No. 1164819) and several of the trustees (including Roger) are members of Highfields Church.

How have you seen God work in this ministry?

There are many hundreds of Marwari believers today following the first convert in 1964. This people group are spread over vast areas of the country. There are small house-based churches with pastors and evangelists. School ministry has resulted in a remarkable increase in the literacy of these people. There are Marwari men who are in positions of leadership in the church. What has happened among this one group is also now beginning to happen among other ethnic communities.

The Hankey family are currently church planting in the Adamsdown/Splott area of Cardiff’s inner city. Dai leads Red Community - a Christian charity that seeks to passionately, prayerfully, creatively combat human trafficking in Wales. Michelle is involved in various ministries to asylum seekers. Dai regularly preaches in churches, prisons and youth events around Wales and writes books too.

What led you to mission?

As soon as I got saved as a teenager I knew I had to share the gospel with other people. When I came to Cardiff I ended up at Highfields where I was encouraged, equipped and then released into mission. I have been a mission’s partner since 1999 and I am so thankful for this church.

We’ve been in OMF for over 25 years now. Most of that time was spent in the Southern Philippines doing church planting and nuturing work among the Manobo people. We were quite involved in setting up and running the S. Philippines indigenous peoples education program for Manobo children and young people. For the last 8 years or so we’ve been based in Bristol as OMF area representatives for Wales and West England. We also are registered foster carers in the Bristol area.

Serve Asia is OMF’S programme for anyone wanting to experience and work in Asia short term. It is integrated with our discipleship programme, designed to equip and encourage people to be at the forefront of mission in East Asia and help them to find their place in mission.

We have been serving the Lord in France for 27 years. Our work has always been focused on helping people see the relevance of God’s Word to their lives: student work, children’s work, church-planting, AIDS-chaplaincy and Christian literature. We are involved in the publications department of Scripture Union-France. Jonathan has written 9 books and contributes to several magazines and websites. (http://www.editionsfarel.com/recherche.php?chaine=hanley) Current commitments also include chaplaincy work with artists and discipleship among Turkish Christians. All of this is voluntary, and would not be possible without the support of Christians in the UK.

hanley.jonathan@orange.fr

What are the struggles of full-time ministry?Two struggles in particular stand out, as we think back over our ministry in France:1. Many UK Christians see France as a holiday destination and often do not understand the dire spiritual needs and huge opportunities for Gospel outreach that this country presents.2. Our work involves a lot of time spent in front of a computer at home, which is difficult to describe in an attractive way in newsletters and prayer updates.

For the last 6.5 years I have been making contact with mainly Muslim families living around Highfields. This has been done by running English classes for ladies on Mondays and Tuesday mornings. At the end of each term the lessons are given over to a Christian presentation. In 2017 a small group of these ladies started to meet weekly to look at the message of Bible.

In 2016 English classes were started in Grangetown on Thursday and Friday mornings and this project is slowly building up.

Yorkshire Camps runs residential holidays for children aged 8-18 at our centre in the Yorkshire Dales. Our 3 aims are for children to; Enjoy an action-packed holiday, Explore the Christian message, and Enlarge their faith. We run camps during the holidays, weekends away for church groups, and school residentials. All these include time explaining the Bible as well as a range of games & activities. We also run a gap-year programme. My role is to speak or lead on camps and help oversee the gap team. My wife Gill works locally as a physio and also helps support the team.

Yorkshire Camps has seen an amazing array of answered prayers since its inception just 4 years ago. God has been at work for us to provide our home at Netherside Hall. Now with building work near completion, and hosting camps most weeks we have the privilege of seeing God at work through us. It’s been a thrill to receive feedback like the following; the first is from a teenager, the second from a group leader after bringing their group of mostly unchurched kids; “Thank you for an amazing camp. I really wasn’t sure about coming because I’ve had a rough year in terms of faith and wasn’t sure if I even still believed. I have really enjoyed everything!!”. “On the way home Isabel suddenly shouted down the minibus, "What I learned this week is that Jesus died for our sins because we (short pause) tell lies."”. Thank God that He is using us to help Children discover who he is and what he’s done, and to help teenagers remain firm in their faith. Ask God that he would continue to work in this way!